


Change of Plans

by TinCanTelephone



Series: Perfection is Overrated [3]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses, Influenza, SO MUCH FLUFF, fluffiest fluff ever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-06-26
Packaged: 2018-11-19 05:51:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11307042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinCanTelephone/pseuds/TinCanTelephone
Summary: "Cassian prided himself on being a patient man. He cited it on his resumé. His captain said it was why he good at his job. Cassian could wait. Four weeks was nothing. Four weeks was no problem. He could wait four weeks in his sleep."Or, Cassian should know better than to plan things





	Change of Plans

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fluffy fluff in a modern AU!! 
> 
> Enjoy!

Jyn entered the apartment as quietly as possible, hoping she wouldn't wake Cassian, who had come down with the worst flu she'd seen in recent memory. He hadn't gotten much sleep after spending half the night vomiting, spitting out strings of watery bile long after his dinner was lost. Jyn had wondered if she should stay home with him today, but she was in the middle of a new project at work and in the end he'd convinced her to go.

It was strange to see him so completely floored by a virus. He was the type to try and work through any illness not immediately life-threatening, but this morning he hadn't even attempted to get out of bed. He just slumped back onto the pillows after taking the Tylenol she'd brought to him and waved her off to work, muttering that he was probably just going to sleep all day, anyway.

Jyn closed the door behind her and toed off her shoes, padding down the hallway without turning on the light. She found Cassian lying on the sofa wrapped in all three of their throw blankets. She briefly wondered if he was asleep, then he stirred and blinked up at her.

"Jyn?" Christ, he sounded horrible. His voice was an octave lower and seemed to trip over the one syllable so he ducked his head back into the blankets to cough.

Jyn put down her bag and sat on the coffee table near his head. "How are you feeling?" She put a hand on his forehead. It didn't feel like his fever had gone down. "Have you taken your temperature recently?"

"No," he said into the blanket. "Your hand is cold."

She dropped it. "When was the last time you took anything?"

A shuffling movement that could have been a shrug.

"What about when I texted you, did you take anything then?"

Another shrug and Cassian poked his face out of the blanket. "I thought interrogations were my thing."

Jyn rolled her eyes. "Fine. One more question. Have you eaten anything today?"

Back into the blanket. "No. Not hungry."

"Well, you have to eat something. What do you think you can handle right now? Dry toast? Chili from Monday?"

A sigh and another cough. "Dry toast." Cassian pushed the blankets down to his waist. Jyn wondered if he was about to sit up, but he stayed horizontal, staring listlessly at the blank TV screen.

He only picked at his toast, breaking off tiny bits and eating them one at a time. Jyn had made two pieces, but Cassian barely made it through half of one and she ended up eating the other one herself. He sank back into the couch and closed his eyes as if the whole process of eating had exhausted him.

Jyn nudged a glass of water towards him. "You should be drinking more fluids."

"Mm."

Her stomach grumbled audibly.

Cassian blinked up at her. "You should have dinner."

Jyn resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "I will. In the meantime, why don't you try and finish your water? I can get you some more Tylenol, too."

His eyes slid back shut. "Mm."

Jyn nudged his shoulder. "Come on, Cassian. Take some more meds, drink the water, then we can get you to bed and you can sleep for real. You'll feel better in the morning." Jyn doubted that would be the case. According to the online symptom-checker, Cassian would probably feel miserable for another couple of days until his fever backed off.

He dragged his eyes open again. "Okay. You should eat," he said again.

This time, Jyn did roll her eyes. "New apartment rule. No pestering if your temperature is above 100 degrees."

Cassian just stared at her.

"Fine. I will eat dinner if you _drink the water_." She picked up the glass and held it up to him.

He looked at it for a minute, then sighed and dragged himself halfway into a sitting position. He rubbed his face a couple times and leaned sideways against the back of the sofa. "I'm sorry, Jyn. I'm really tired and everything hurts and I just– God, I really don't feel good."

Jyn sighed and pulled him awkwardly into her chest. "No kidding." She brushed a hand through his sweaty hair. "Please just drink something for me, okay? I don't want you to get dehydrated."

"Okay," he murmured into her shoulder.

"Okay." Jyn let him go and went to the kitchen to heat up some of Monday's chili. Cassian managed to finish the glass of water while she was eating, so she refilled it and gave him some more medicine. "All right, time for bed." She hauled him to his feet and led him slowly back to their room. He collapsed as soon as he reached the bed and Jyn tugged the covers over him.

He rolled over as if he was going to go to sleep but jerked when he saw the time on the nightstand. He looked back up at her with wide eyes. "Jyn. Dinner."

She raised her eyebrows. "I had dinner, Cassian."

"No. Not here. I had– we had a reservation."

Jyn glanced at the clock. "I think we missed it," she said dryly.

Cassian closed his eyes. "I know." He seemed oddly disappointed about a missed dinner reservation.

"It's okay, you're sick. We had dinner out a few weeks ago, anyway."

"But this was at Yavin IV."

Oh. Well, that was kind of a bummer, she supposed. It was famously difficult to get a table at Yavin IV, Cassian must've made the reservation weeks in advance. Still, she'd say they had a pretty good reason for missing it. "It's okay. I can call tomorrow and maybe we can reschedule for next month."

Cassian's face pinched. "I don't want to wait that long."

That was weird. Cassian wasn't normally the impatient one. "It'll be fine. The restaurant's not going anywhere."

"But I don't want to wait that long," he repeated. He was sweating and shifting about restlessly.

Jyn started looking around for the thermometer. "Wait that long for what?" She found it and held it up.

"To ask you to marry me."

 

* * *

 

Cassian didn't really mean to say that. He hadn't wanted it to come out like that. But he wasn't thinking straight. He was half out of his mind with a high fever and exhaustion and he was so _goddamn frustrated_ at the poor timing of the _fucking_ flu that it just sort of slipped out. And after all that build-up. Well, build-up on his part.

He remembered deciding he was going to propose, two months ago. Jyn's lab had a grant due and she stayed late at work five nights in a row trying to meet her deadlines. That kind of thing had happened before, of course. His long hours at the station had resulted in some of their more vicious arguments, before becoming the reason they moved in together last year.

"We'll get to see more of each other with less effort. Plus, then you can cook for me _all_ the time," Jyn said.

They decided not to choose between their separate apartments. His was too far from her job and she already had a roommate. So they put their heads together and scoured the internet for a place equidistant from their jobs that didn't break their bank accounts. Cassian demonstrated his commitment to their revitalized relationship by cutting back (slightly) on his hours at work, and Jyn bit her tongue most of the time when he pulled a string of not-quite-all-nighters as long as he tried to come home for an hour or two in the evening for a quick dinner.

But two months ago had been the first time since they were living together that the tables were turned. This was her first stable position since getting her master's, the first one with the potential to last more than a year, and boy were they making her work for it. Jyn hadn't talked about the kind of pressure she was under to finish on time and do a damn good job, but Cassian could tell from the way she punched a little harder when they sparred together at the gym, the fixed glare on her face was a bit harder to tease away and, in the last week before the deadline, she began texting him at 5:30 telling him not to wait for dinner.

He didn't handle it as well as he hoped he would. He found he didn't like eating by himself, even though he must've done it for years before they were together. He didn't like going to bed alone, either. It was harder to get to sleep when she wasn't there. He missed the background noise of her breathing and occasional shuffling around. He just missed her, in general. And they _lived_ together. He honestly didn't know what he'd do if he didn't have that to hang onto. Even if she came back late, she was going to come back _eventually_. And he never wanted that to change. He couldn't imagine a future in which that wasn't the case. He didn't even want to try.

They'd talked about marriage before, but never really in specific terms. Still, he was 95% sure she would say yes. He just needed to figure out how to do it. He ran through several different options, some of them out loud (much to the exasperation of his partner, Kay), but in the end decided he was a traditional guy. He'd take her out to dinner at a fancy restaurant, ice cream at her favorite place near the park, then they'd go back to their apartment but before she could change out of her dress he'd get down on one knee and ask her to be with him for the rest of his life. He decided it had to be in the apartment because it was the first big thing they'd bought together as a couple, it felt like a home to him more than any other place he'd had, and he planned a whole speech about how he would't be home anywhere without her.

Planning phase completed, he began by calling Yavin IV. Bodhi, Jyn's former roommate, raved about it, calling it "a whole new food experience" and "so romantic, Cassian, you _have_ to go there." He convinced Cassian it was the _only_ place that could possibly be appropriate for such a _momentous_ occasion, but he'd failed to mention how popular it was and by the time Cassian called he was dead set on it and more than a bit disappointed to find out their first available table at a reasonable time would be in four weeks. He made the reservation anyway, he could wait. It was fine. He swore Bodhi to secrecy and didn't even tell Jyn about the reservation. He wanted this to be a total surprise, something she would remember forever. She'd had a rough childhood. Most of the surprises in her life had been horrible, but not this one. He was determined to make this one perfect.

He called his mother and secured his Abuela's ring the day after making the reservation. He had her mail it to him at work so there was no chance Jyn would see it, and then he settled down to wait four weeks. Cassian prided himself on being a patient man. He cited it on his resumé. His captain said it was why he good at his job. Cassian could wait. Four weeks was nothing. Four weeks was no problem. He could wait four weeks in his sleep.

Right.

The first week was easy. He was maybe a bit more jittery than usual, but it was a _good_ kind of jittery. He smiled all the time at work, so much so that his coworkers started giving him odd looks, and it was worse at home. Every time he looked at Jyn he remembered how much he loved her and how happy she made him and how _excited_ he was to be spending the rest of his life with her. The excitement wore off a bit in the second week, when he remembered that he hadn't actually asked her yet, but he was still generally cheerful. By the third week, he'd had time to overthink things and characteristic doubts started to creep into his head. He and Jyn had a minor argument, and he promptly began to spiral. What if she said no? What if she didn't like his speech? What if they arrived at the restaurant and it turned out he'd accidentally made the reservation for a different day? Kay had to physically take away Cassian's phone when he tried to call and confirm for a second time that week.

By Monday, he was tired of waiting. The anticipation was officially killing him, Thursday could not come fast enough.

Then it all went to shit on Wednesday.

It was the strangest fucking thing. He was fine all day. Excited for tomorrow (finally, it was tomorrow!), on his game at work, home early enough to make Jyn her favorite pot pie. It was when he got the pie in the oven he began to feel a little… off. Jyn wasn't home yet, he was alone in the apartment twiddling his thumbs on the sofa. He turned on the TV but the noise quickly gave him a headache, so he picked up a book, but that didn't help his head either and when he thought about it, his eyes kind of hurt, too. And he realized he was pretty tired. He dozed off for a bit and only woke up to the alarm on his phone telling him to turn the pies in the oven. Jyn came home to the apartment filled with the smell of chicken and pie crust. He suddenly didn't find it all that appetizing, but Jyn beamed at him and insisted it smelled amazing.

For once, she ate more than he did. What little he did eat seemed to sit uncomfortably in his stomach and made him a little queasy. By the time the dishes were done, he couldn't hide how he felt from Jyn anymore and she sent him to bed early. He laid there trying to convince himself this would pass, but within an hour he threw up for the first time, and within two he had a horribly sore throat and a definite temperature and he knew he was screwed.

So yeah. He had planned the perfect proposal, waited four tortuous weeks to execute it, and it was all ruined by a fucking virus. He was too out of it for most of the day to agonize over it that much, but he was reminded of it when Jyn put him to bed and he realized they'd officially missed their reservation.

 

* * *

 

Jyn paused and slowly lowered the thermometer. "What?"

Cassian groaned and rolled away from her.

Jyn went around to her side of the bed and sat down next to him. He tried to roll the other way again but she caught his shoulder. "Cassian, what are you saying?"

He sighed and started coughing. She rubbed his back until it passed. "Nothing," he croaked.

"Cassian." She pulled him closer to her, so his head was resting near her hip. He put a hand on her leg and buried his face into her side. "Were you going to propose tonight?" She felt him nod into the pillow. He looked completely miserable and he wouldn't look at her but she felt a wide grin split her face.

He mumbled something she couldn't make out.

"What's that?"

He rolled onto his back again, but stayed pressed against her. "This wasn't how it was supposed to go."

Jyn couldn't help it, she laughed. "You don't say."

"I had a plan," Cassian said. "It was going to be perfect."

Jyn shrugged. "Perfection's overrated." She ran her fingers through his hair.

He leaned into her and gripped her leg tighter. "You deserve something perfect."

She was still smiling. She couldn't stop. "Who says this isn't perfect?"

He grunted. "I could list a few things."

She ignored him. "Cassian, any proposal from you would be perfect to me."

He looked up at her. "Is that a yes?"

"Hey, I don't think you've asked me anything yet."

He turned his face away again. "Don't make me say it."

"Why not?"

He groaned. "Because. I can barely talk without coughing, I'm too dizzy to sit up, much less balance on one knee, and too tired to go get the ring. This isn't how I wanted to ask you."

"And you want me to answer anyway?" Jyn felt bad for him, she did, but she couldn't keep the smile out of her voice.

"Okay." He shuffled a bit to get a better view of her. "Jyn Erso." He cleared his throat, coughed a bit. "I love you. I want to always have you by my side, and I always want to be by yours. So Jyn Erso, will you marry me?" The last words were a whisper and he had to turn away to cough again. When he turned back he said, "There was a lot more, but I can't remember it right now."

Jyn pulled him back toward her. "You can tell me later. We have the rest of our lives."

"Is that a yes?"

She laughed. "Yes."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading!
> 
>  
> 
> Author's commentary on this fic can be found [here](https://cats-and-metersticks.tumblr.com/post/169601648550/for-the-directors-commentary-meme-please-may-i) :)


End file.
